Thomas Piketty became a darling of the left with “Capital in the 21st Century,” his 700-page tome on inequality. But some fellow economists aren’t quite as keen on his ideas. A recent working paper published by the National Bureau for Economic Researchcritiques Mr. Piketty’s claim that r > g—when return to capital R exceeds the rate of growth G—is the formula for inequality. Read More »

China’s overall debt load has risen quickly since the global financial crisis. While still manageable, it raises some concerns for investors, the McKinsey Global Institute says in a new report. Read More »

The world economy will need to generate nearly 280 million new jobs between now and the end of 2019 to make up ground lost during the last recession and ensure new labor market entrants can find work, the International Labor Organization said in a new report. Read More »

The U.S. economy is ending 2014 with a bang: a 5% growth pace, sustained hiring and lower unemployment, and falling gasoline prices. Still, there are signs of weakness in the housing market and wage growth, and inflation remains low. Whether strong growth will continue into 2015 is a big question.

The most popular posts on Real Time Economics this year touched on those themes. Why are so many millennials still living at home? How does wealth affect how long we live? How are declining oil prices affecting the global economy? And what does it say about mortgage lending standards if even former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke couldn’t refinance his own mortgage? Read More »

Mexico’s version of Black Friday, known as El Buen Fin or “the good weekend,” has seen sales grow annually since its inception in 2011, although in its fourth edition this year growth slowed to 13.7% from around 40% in its first two years. Read More »

Two government initiatives to understand the value of college are colliding right now. The White House is spelling out a plan today to rank the nation’s 5,000 colleges and universities, reasoning that students need more information before committing to the massive expense of higher education. But meanwhile, and with much less fanfare, the U.S. Census Bureau has proposed ending its efforts to collect data on college majors. Read More »

A dozen German life insurance companies wouldn’t be sufficiently funded to face even a mild stress scenario in which German government bond yields decline further and stay super low, according to a paper released Monday by Germany’s central bank.

“The present analysis shows that a persistent low-interest-rate environment harbors a potential risk to the stability of the life insurance segment,” a pair of Bundesbank economists wrote in a study looking at year-end 2012 data from 85 German life insurers. Read More »

A 10% increase in China’s minimum wage cuts employment by 1%, according to a new International Monetary Fund research paper.

That fact should help guide officials in Beijing and other emerging markets as they seek to raise living standards with higher wages without damaging the economy, says Prakash Loungani, an adviser in the IMF’s research department and a former Federal Reserve economist. Read More »

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